Gaming consoles otherwise known as gaming machines, slot machines, poker machines, pokies or EGMs, have proven very popular and for many years have become one of the base elements of the gaming industry. Over the years, there have been many adaptations used in gaming consoles to assist players in transferring money from one gaming console to another without the need for hard currency.
With networks, came a freedom to allow players to remove stored credits to a server for latter access. As the player cashes out, the player is given a ticket worth the amount of credits transferred. To access the credits again, the player merely has to enter the ticket into a new gaming console. The new gaming console will then query the server to confirm the amount of credits to be transferred, and upon confirmation, the server thusly transferred the credits to the new gaming console. This method allows in the quick removal of large amounts of money, without forcing players to wait for a manual pay by an attendant or permitting redemption of odd credits which could not be readily dispensed by a gaming console.
One such application can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 6,752,312 which allows payout by ticket rather than cash, to be remunerated at a latter time by a casino cashier. Alternatively, the same ticket may then be used to enter into another gaming console played by a player. By storing the amount on a server rather than just trusting the amount on a ticket, a certain level of security is obtained, however this in turn opens up other security flaws.
Importantly, the amount of government regulations in most jurisdictions controlling the use of servers for gaming consoles is severely lacking to non-existent. To simply rely on gaming console servers to provide security for all ticket transaction is neglecting the already built in security of gaming consoles themselves which are constructed to withstand excessive manhandling, voltage shocks, power outages, and the like, none of which exist with servers. Additionally, servers rooms generally speaking are fairly accessibly to many casino staff members who in most cases, merely have to log there presence in a log book, if at all. The server in essence is fairly open to attack and or fraudulent use to obtain payout. Further to the server being at direct risk from misuse in manipulating payout, terminals connected to the server itself are even more open for abuse with less security protecting their use. With this in mind, access to servers is increasingly made easier with spyware such as key stroke loggers, online hacking, and various other forms of server tampering.
It is therefore the intention of this invention to alleviate or at the least provide a valid alternative to the problems in the described prior art by providing a secure method of storing player credits for future use. The instant invention will now be described herein in the following embodiments and is not intended to be limited by the scope of the embodiments provided, as other objects, features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed disclosure.